"Stop me," said Rory Bremner, as he read names from the post-election political intake, "if you've heard of any of these." The perceived blandness of career politicians is, he added, "something of a problem" for satirical impressionists, a problem engagingly explored in Archive On 4 – The Character Crunch (Radio 4, Saturday).

The producer had some fun early on, running Nick Robinson's description of Cameron and Clegg's negotiations ("they came into the room and found they rather liked each other") over Je t'aime . . . moi non plus, and the programme was full of fantastic clips of more characterful politicians in full flow. Historian Peter Hennessy mooted that any modern day politician speaking like Churchill would "be offered counselling". We were then treated to some vintage Kinnock: "I don't give a sod about the politics – I'm not going to be kebabbed!"

The essay argued that politicians such as Blair and Cameron succeed because they depersonalise their public image. John Rentoul said of Blair: "His ordinariness is a facade, it's not real – he's actually a very self-controlled professional presentation manager." Keeping things bland may be good for politicians ("any kind of character is going to put somebody off"), but it's tough on Bremner. He tried to do Michael Gove but conceded that he makes him sound "a bit like Ronnie Corbett".